


Porcelain Can't Cover up Crimes

by GarnetsAndRoses



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst, Arguing, Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Dialogue Heavy, Dream SMP Season 2 Finale, Dream Smp, Dream Team SMP Spoilers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Identity Reveal, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Light Angst, Long Shot, Old Friends, One Shot, Post-Dream SMP Season 2 Finale, Reveal, Swearing, TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Two Shot, What-If, dream do be taking his mask off, dream smp prison, more reincarnation au content that barely touches on the au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:16:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28898778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GarnetsAndRoses/pseuds/GarnetsAndRoses
Summary: Dream says that Tommy is making a mistake. That's debatable, but the doubt still makes Tommy's voice wobble.Dream says that he won't take the mask off. That's been true for as long as Tommy can remember and probably as long as everyone else on the server can.Dream is a liar. That's so incredibly obvious to Tommy, it's his reality and mantra and the words he keeps close to his chest.Three statements to ponder, two statements to ignore, one statement to hold onto. One face to reveal.A canon-divergent retelling of the finale scene based in my reincarnation AU where Dream is forced to give up his mask along with his items.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Luke | Punz, Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Comments: 40
Kudos: 418





	1. Removal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blue_skyandstars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_skyandstars/gifts).



> credit goes to the banger tweet below for the idea, and @Blue_skyandstars for cheering me on! she's awesome ^w^
> 
> https://twitter.com/tisssuebox/status/1352018545031348224?s=21

Dream shakes his head, almost unconsciously. “I will _not_ do that.” His posture is ramrod-straight even as his shaky hands tear pieces of armor from his body. “You can’t make me.”

Tommy takes the chance to smirk. “Would you like to take a final crossbow bolt to the face, green boy?” he taunts, raising the weapon. A poison-tipped arrow draws a line between the eye dots of Dream’s gleamingly white mask.

“Fuck you,” spits the man. He tosses his right gauntlet, his final item, into the hasty pit. “Imagine believing that this gives you _any_ power over me.”

Next to Tommy, Tubbo chuckles. “Dream, buddy, you just gave up all of your stuff. Power is barely a word in your vocabulary.”

“Wow, where’d you learn such a big word like ‘vocabulary,’ Tubbo?”

Steadying his finger on the trigger, Tommy hisses, “Shut that mouth of yours and drop the mask.”

Dream pushes a breath out from between clenched teeth, and lowers his hood. He reaches for the buckle at the nape of his neck.

In the audience, someone gasps. Tommy’s eyes dart towards the swarm of armored people, but can only catch identical hesitation and anxiety scrawled across each person’s features. It doesn’t take long for him to turn back to Dream.

“You’ll regret this, Tommy.” Dream pulls off the porcelain mask and flings it into the pit. It shatters against the netherite tools piled at the bottom.

Tommy winces as the people standing scattered across the cavernous base suck in breath and shuffle backwards. When Tommy looks up, he’s gazing back into narrowed green eyes.

Dream stares down his nose, _his freckled nose_ , at the teens. Thin lips curl up against off-white teeth in a sneer. “God, are you fucking satisfied now?”

“Uh. Yeah,” Tubbo mumbles.

It’s unfathomable to Tommy. He’s staring back at a man who barely looks older than himself, whose blonde hair flops across a lightly tanned forehead and frames cheeks that baby fat still clings to. The face of a teen, a child, a kid. After releasing a sharp exhale-turned-giggle, Tommy jokes, “Dream? You were hiding this the whole time? No wonder—”

“What the fuck,” says a faint voice from the audience.

It’s Sapnap, who stands shoulder-to-shoulder with George. He pushes forward to stand barely feet away from Tommy and Tubbo. “Why the hell do you look like that?”

“Sapnap,” replies Dream rigidly, “I don’t know what you mean.” He turns away from the teens on one heel, trying to restrain his grimace.

“Why the hell do you look like you haven’t aged since we, I dunno, founded this SMP?! You can’t be telling me that I’m supposed to not to wonder why my friend still looks sixteen after all these years—”

Tommy opens his mouth to cry out as Dream lunges forward to wrap his hand around the neck of Sapnap’s shirt. The crowd erupts into jostling chaos as they all raise their weapons and move to stop Dream.

George scrambles to Sapnap’s side and pulls his friend away as Dream shouts, “Maybe it’s not any of your _goddamned_ business!”

Behind George, Punz scoffs and steps forward to level his sword at the green-clad man. “Listen, Dream, I never cared much about the mask, or even what was underneath it. But doesn’t Sap have a bit of a point?”

Dream’s chest heaves as he stares back at Punz. Tommy can’t take his eyes away from the man’s face, so contorted in anger.

“Guys, guys,” Tubbo suddenly declares, waving his hands. “Let’s just . . . get this over with. No need for this.”

Sapnap growls, “I want an answer! This isn’t normal. No one should be so _unchanged_.”

“Sap, back off of it,” mumbles George. It’s barely audible to Tommy and he inches closer to Dream’s back to try and catch what George whispers next.

It sends Dream into a snarling rage, and he ducks under Punz’s sword to try and grab at George. “You DID NOT just fucking—”

Eret is the one to seize Dream’s arms and tackle him to the ground. Dream shouts something, but Eret dodges his kicks and Puffy takes her place at Dream’s other side to help hold him down.

Leaning against Tubbo, Tommy takes a deep breath. He still can’t drag his gaze away from Dream’s face, something so familiar it feels like he’d revealed his face before. As the man is dragged away, Tommy stares back at Tubbo and almost flinches at the comparisons he can draw to Dream. Point to point, shaky line to shaky line, from the floppy hair and soft brows and round jawline.

“Tommy?” murmurs Tubbo.

Tommy squeezes his eyes shut and draws Tubbo into a tight hug. “I’m fine, let’s just . . . go somewhere else.”

Tubbo pats Tommy on his bare shoulder and rests his head there. He lightly sighs, “Let’s go to the bench. It’s been a while, right?”

“Yeah.” Tommy opens his eyes and blinks the tears away. Suddenly the cavern isn’t filled with gleeful chatter or the scraping of pickaxes as people dig away at hidden chests, just Tubbo laughing at his own whispered joke. And it’s not the constant shine of enchanted armor and the glare of redstone-generated light on golden blocks he focuses on, it’s Tubbo grinning before dragging Tommy out of his stupor and towards the elevator.

The two collapse onto the platform, hanging their legs over the side as it slowly rises. Tommy groans and raises an arm to cover his face with. “Big T, we really did it,” he muses.

Tubbo folds his arms over his chest. “Yeah, and now we’re going to . . . uh. Have fun?”

It takes a second for Tommy to bark out a laugh and reach over to ruffle Tubbo’s hair. “Amen to that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you enjoyed that, bc there's a second chapter to this! sapnap, punz, and george will get to speak with green boy as he languishes in prison. i have mega brainrot


	2. Removed

Dream lounges on the cot and sighs. He’s been sighing frequently, out of boredom and a desire to annoy Sam. Sam, who sits there still in his chair across the cavernous prison. Sam, who sits there leafing through the same book and occasionally writing in it every day. Sam, who sits there perfectly content with what must be a smug expression hidden behind that creeper mask—

“Oh, really?” Sam says, breaking the silence. It’s barely audible over the crackling of lava.

Clenching his fist to keep himself from startling visibly, Dream rolls over to look at Sam. The man is listening to the garbled chatter from his walkie talkie and nodding along. If Dream were any less dedicated to his pride, he’d lean out of his cell and try to listen in.

“Yeah. I’ll be expecting you.”

Ah. Someone visiting? It was bound to happen sooner or later, and Dream hopes desperately that it won’t be someone looking to stay for much longer than a few minutes. He has spent what seems like eons carving messages into the mortar of his walls and tying knots into the drawstrings of each hoodie that lays folded at the bottom of his tiny wardrobe, but it’s preferable to having to see anyone’s vacuous face as they survey how far he has fallen from grace.

Sam stands up and stretches, heading towards the small box of snacks set by the mechanical door. “Dream,” he calls, crouching down to start rummaging through the crate, “there’ll be three visitors for you in about ten minutes.”

Dream refuses to answer. His throat is sore, anyway.

“George, Sapnap, and Punz.” Sam stands up with an apple in hand, shining it with the sleeve of his coat. “They didn’t say how long they’d stay but I assume there’s plenty to talk about.”

“It’s not like you’d keep them out,” finally snarks Dream. “It’s probably more for your own sake than mine. Isn’t it lonely, watching over a prisoner who refuses to develop Stockholm Syndrome?”

Flicking the lever by his desk, Sam sits and begins to pore over the mess of buttons on his desk. “Stockholm Syndrome, eh? Sounds like a you problem. I’m leaving to let them in. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Dream pinches the bridge of his nose, which is a gesture he missed doing. He sighs and looks over at the clock, which ticks rhythmically. It’s barely past noon. Strange.

It’s half an hour into an attempt to tie a Spanish Rose knot before Sam’s voice drifts from outside of the lava-draped cell, followed by the murmurs of multiple other people. At this, Dream’s head involuntarily snaps up.

Even after all those years spent with his door locked and windows bolted, he can’t restrain himself from wanting to see visitors.

Sam bites into his apple, chewing leisurely while ushering the visitors onto the slowly moving platform. It’s George, Sapnap, and Punz, all right. Dream's composed thoughts are replaced with a softly boiling fury that finally lights some urge in him to stand up and lean over the netherite blocks that bar him off from the rest of the world.

“You three,” he says casually. Though his bare face seems to sting with the heat of the lava and the prickly stare of Sapnap, Dream can’t resist grinning.

A sheet of lava descends from the ceiling and Dream notices George shy closer to Sapnap. Punz doesn’t hesitate to step forward. Thanks to some hidden mechanism, the netherite blocks shrink away from the mercenary and leave only air between him and the prisoner.

“Dream,” begins Punz. “You know why we’re here.”

Shaking his head in a mockery of dismay, Dream steps forward and pats Punz on a shoulder that would normally be weighed down with a netherite pauldron. “Punz, drop the act. You might have won an award for your performance yesterday but it’s not necessary here.”

Sapnap’s eyes narrow and he lunges forward to press a finger against Dream’s chest. His voice is rough as he demands, “You might win an award for the long jump, with the way you dodged my question when we were in that vault of yours.”

Dream gnashes his teeth once, ready to scream back at Sapnap, but relents as George grabs Sapnap’s arm and pulls him back in a mirror of the scene in the vault.

“Dream, Punz told us about getting you out of here,” says George softly. He looks up and there’s a strength in his gaze. “I told them not to plan anything. Because . . .”

Sapnap’s warning is sharp. “He’s going to get mad at you, George.”

“Yeah, Sap, you’re right! George, don’t tell me you’re gonna say that line!” growls Dream.

George raises his voice, though it’s still mournful. “ _Dream_ , you’re not the same person we were waiting for.”

With a clench of his fists, Dream shoves Sapnap and Punz away to grab the neckline of George’s shirt. “I knew you’d fucking say that, you cowardly little—”

Punz groans and grabs Dream by his hood and a fistful of shaggy hair. He throws Dream down easily and holds his hands behind his back.

“Fuck you too, Punz,” snarls Dream even as his cheek presses against rough stone. His eyes dart wildly between the two figures hovering above him and the one pressing against his back. “I didn’t pay for this treatment, you know.”

“Hah. You paid for an errand boy, nothing more. But if you want pampering, though, I hear Hbomb takes emeralds.”

Crouching down, Sapnap makes eye contact with Dream. “We’re going to take a lot of convincing to let you out. Despite your face, you’ve changed an awful lot since we were friends.”

Dream kicks at the stone floor but is only elbowed in the back by Punz.

Punz adds, “Sam didn’t take that long just to strip us, you know.” A low snicker cuts him off. “Oh shut it, Sap, that’s not even funny!”

“Sam told us what you did to Tommy.”

The words sound too harsh to be coming from George. He never used to get angry. He is now, Dream thinks with an inaudible sigh.

George sits down. His pale hand reaches out to Dream’s shoulder and barely brushes it before drawing back. “Why’d you do it?”

“Let me up,” Dream replies, struggling to talk around the stone pressing his cheek into his tongue. It comes out petulant but Punz shifts off of him until the four are kneeling on the floor.

Sapnap’s eyes are drifting across his face, it’s so obvious and pitiful it makes Dream glare even more until his eyebrows feel like they’re one big furrow.

He finally spits, “I had to do it, okay? He was going to come back and ruin everything, like he did during the first war. It wasn’t like I was supposed to know that—”

Sapnap interjects, “That you destroying his stuff and leaving him alone there was going to break him? You’re more of a dumb fuck than I thought!”

“Tommy needed to be taught a lesson!” Dream can’t help from slamming a fist against the ground, even as his once-friends narrow their eyes right back at him.

“The fuck are you on about? He’s a _kid_!” shouts Punz, burying his face in his hands. “Holy hell, guys, he’s too far gone.”

George bites his lip. “Dream, _Dream_ , look at me.” He leans forward onto his hands. “Why? Why’d you do all of this? I can’t even list it, from the war to the TNT to what you did to Tommy. Did you mean to do all of it?” 

Dream bites down on his arm and screams into it. He can’t bear looking at them or them looking at him. He can’t bear the stupidity of the justifications that will boil out from his mouth if he lets them.

The three people across from him are silent until Sapnap mumbles, “You always used to do that. I thought you’d broken the habit after . . . you know.”

It’s not worth unclenching his teeth to retort, _After I started wearing that mask? The mask I haven’t taken off for years?_ That _one? Say it with your chest, Sap. Just SAY IT and SPIT IT OUT._

“Dream, we’re going to leave if you don’t answer us,” declares Punz.

Dream opens his jaw from where it clenches around his forearm and pops his lips in a rather unnecessary gesture. His arm stings beneath the green fabric but he ignores it to answer, “Of _course_ I didn’t mean for it all to turn out so bad, but if you were in my place you’d know how fucking hard it was!” He shakes his head and throws himself closer to the people facing him. “Managing this server and all of you dimwits, trying not to let that drug van take itself too seriously, trying not to let the peace get disturbed by the same snot-nosed brat!”

“Tommy’s a _kid_!” shrieks George right back in his face.

“ _I_ was a kid! I didn’t ask for this bullshit, I just got handed this job and now I’m suffering for something I never chose to do—”

Punz slams his hands on the ground in frustration. He pushes Dream backward. “Shut the hell up, Dream, before I do something I don’t want to do. What justifications are there for doing what you did to Tommy in exile?”

“Like destroying his stuff or _gaslighting_ him,” Sapnap chimes in, folding his arms across his chest.

Heaving for breath, Dream runs a hand through his floppy hair. “Oh God, you seriously think I was gaslighting him? I didn’t expect him to be so weak, I just took away some birthday party invitations and that got him thinking about dying, I guess. What the fuck, you guys? I’ve been through worse, a little loneliness wasn’t going to kill him!”

“ _Dream_ ,” breathes George. “I can’t believe you. What’s gotten into you? No one deserves to go through that, even if they can survive.”

“And what do you mean, you’ve ‘been through worse,’ Dream?” asks Sapnap hesitantly.

A wheeze escapes Dream. It’s followed by a chuckle and then a torrent of laughter. “What _haven’t_ I been through?!” The eyes of the others are filled with apprehension at his new manic tone, but he continues. “I’ve died but not really, I’ve hurt myself but not really, I’ve killed and rebuilt things and buildings, I’ve done it all! And if I could do that all by myself without a single person by my side, then Tommy should have handled a few weeks of vacation!”

“What the hell?!” cries George. He puts his hands on Dream’s shoulders, stares at him with tear-marred eyes. “Do you hear what you’re saying? You’ve lost it, what do you mean you did those things, why don’t you see what you did was wrong?!”

Sapnap and Punz hesitate as Dream wrenches George’s hands off and hisses, “I’m fucked up, alright? Self-awareness, I know, at this point I barely care that I’m locked up for the rest of eternity—”

“ _Eternity_?” mumbles Sapnap. “I can’t believe it.”

George collapses backward and wipes his eyes. “Believe what, Sap?”

Now grinning, Dream whispers, “You know what.”

“You can’t be saying you’re immortal, Dream.” Punz stands up and shakes his head. His legs tremble and threaten to send him toppling into the lava.

“I am,” breathes the prisoner. “I’ve been this way since I was sixteen and laying down stone for the foundation of the community house. Since I was blown into the lake by a creeper but _didn’t drown_.”

“That’s why you started wearing that mask . . . You didn’t want us to see that you weren’t aging.” It’s like George crumples into himself, hiding his face in his hands before breaking into sobs. Sapnap leans over to wrap him in his arms.

“There’s no way, no way. As if this is true. And it doesn’t even give you an _excuse_ , not for abandoning your friends and nearly killing them and taking over the server,” mumbles Punz.

Dream shouts, “I HAD TO! I had to let go of my attachments before you all died!”

“And not spend time with us while you could?” pleads George, sitting up straighter to stare at Dream. “Or tell us at all?”

Turning away, Punz scrabbles in his hoodie pockets before pulling out a tiny remote. He jabs at a button. “I’m leaving.”

“You couldn’t handle the truth, could you?” asks Dream, a rasp to his voice.

Sapnap stands up and lifts George, who stumbles. “I can’t believe that you’ve lied to us,” Sapnap mumbles.

“He didn’t lie to us,” finally says George. He turns to Punz and stops him from boarding the platform, which inches closer. “He just didn’t tell us.”

Punz wrinkles his nose, a dark shadow thrown across his eyes by the lava’s harsh light, and looks down at Dream. “Like that’s any better?”

Dream returns the look but cannot stop his lip from wobbling. “I- I don’t care. Get out, if you won’t even try to break me out.”

“You’re a threat,” Sapnap announces with a grimace. “And I never thought I’d have to say that but you are. And I don’t think we can let you out.”

Lurching to his feet, Dream declares, “That was the point, wasn’t it? I’m a threat and you know there’ll be hell to pay if you don’t help. I _know_ things, I _know_ immortality, I _know_ how to keep that obnoxious face of yours from ever wrinkling. And I _know_ you’re too much of a coward to pass up on that.”

“That’s enough, Dream!” blurts George. He buries his face in his hands. “Punz, Sap, just stay, we can’t leave him in here.”

“The fucking irony of me being ‘Sap’ while you let your old feelings take over, huh? Just because you haven’t gotten over a damn crush doesn’t mean that we can break him out of jail—”

“I’m listening to you guys over here,” sighs Dream. He toys with a string of his hoodie and waits for someone to say something, chew him out, or at least leave him there so he can go and bury his face in blankets before sobbing in red-hot frustration.

Closest to the slowly churning lava, Punz toys with his medallion. “You did it, asshole. You won me over, I guess. Just tell me what you’ll pay when I get you out of here, okay?”

“Oh, _bull_ shit! You can’t break him out!” Sapnap cries, gesturing wildly. Dream leans back to avoid a flying hand.

George reaches forward and moves to Punz’s shoulder as the mercenary turns to face Dream.

“Don’t test me, Dream,” says Punz. “I may not be working for you this time but call it a favor between old friends. And no one deserves to be locked up alone for the rest of their life. I . . . assume it would be worse in your case.”

Still clinging to Punz’s arm, George whispers something. The sheet of lava’s crackling covers it up. Sapnap shakes his head and mouths something back.

Dream groans and puts his face in his hand. “Just . . . get me out, okay? What do you need to hear?”

Sapnap grimaces and asks, “Whaddya say, guys? Do we ask him to apologize for trying to kill a child multiple times? Or to say sorry for gaslighting another child in exile? Or for ghosting his friends while secretly stealing all of their prized-fucking-possessions to put in a creepy vault?”

“Sap, cool it. We can just leave now. I think this has been enough soul-baring for a day.”

“Wait, you're leaving me? You haven't even come up with a plan yet! What about Techno and Phil, what do they think, c’mon—”

“Shut it!” cries Punz. He wraps his arms around himself and looks down. “Oh my God, Dream, you don’t know what you’re even asking. I have obligations and there’s so much else going on, and you’re not being particularly convincing, alright?! I don’t know how you . . . became this way.”

Dream bites his lip and steps back. “Become what way?”

“Became so . . . not-you, I guess,” whispers George. The man steps away from Punz and continues softly. “The things you’ve done, is there any way to redeem that? Even if it was all accidental or something? How do we know you’re not going to do it again?”

Tears begin to form in Dream’s eyes.

“Listen,” says George, and Dream is _listening_. It’s like their hands meet unconsciously, wrapping around each other and hanging there in the sweltering air. “We’re gonna leave to talk it out more, and come back tomorrow. And then we’ll have a plan. Okay?”

“Fine.”

“Okay. Bye, Dream.”

Sapnap and Punz mumble out their goodbyes as they step onto the creaky platform. Lingering, George takes a second to squeeze Dream’s hands before pulling away to join the duo. The platform slowly slides back as the molten rock swells up in parallel to the rising netherite wall that forces Dream to stumble back.

Soon the silhouettes disappear behind the glowing orange.

He collapses on his cot. Dream can’t help but wonder what Sam will ask the three, and if they’ll say anything, if they’ll hesitate before strapping their armor back on and leaving the prison.

Would they come back? Why does he care if they came back? Why does he . . . miss them?

The clock keeps ticking as Dream’s eyes fail to focus on reading the time displayed with its gold-embossed face. It seems to barely have moved past noon. Strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eyyyy, please pretend this didn't take so long! if you couldn't tell, the words got a little bit away from me. this fic is built on dream being a Salty Spinach Bastard (affectionate) and i tried very hard to deliver with this send-off. hopefully the dialogue was to your liking! i appreciate any kudos and comments bc feedback honestly rocks my world <3
> 
> also, consider joining the writer's block server! it's full of such great mcyt writers and plenty of amazing friends. the link is https://discord.gg/wd2m28pGjM


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